When Andrew McMahon, former singer for the pop-emo bands Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin played his first full solo show in Lancaster in January, it was a set of the best-loved songs by those groups, performed largely as they were on the recorded versions.

By the time he swung through Musikfest Café at SteelStacks in Bethlehem on Tuesday, just six months later and promoting “The Pop Underground,” the EP he released April 30, McMahon already has transformed into a fully realized solo artist.

Andrew McMahon at Musikfest Cafe Photos by Brian Hineline/Special to The Morning Call

Not that McMahon wasn’t always a showman, and in a 19-song, 90-minute set, he still played the songs he wrote in those bands. But he mixed deeper cuts with the favorites, and when he played the better-known songs, they were far more confident and muscular – he and his five-member backing band rolling at full speed and without inhibition.

That was true from the opening song, “The Mixed Tape,” its original uncertainty replaced by driving force, McMahon already standing up from his piano stool as if he couldn’t hold back. The same was true for its “Holiday From Real,” its companion from Jack’s Mannequin’s 2004 debut “Everything in Transit,” and that album’s “Bruised.”

The crowd of nearly 900 apparently felt empowered as well, gleefully shouting the song’s profanity. In all, McMahon played nine from Jack’s Mannequin – five from “Everything in Transit,” indicating just how much of a classic that album is.

Other Jack’s songs were sometimes poignant. McMahon said “Swim” “woke me up to the element of hope” after a years-long struggle with leukemia, and he sang it confidently, defiant and telling. “The Resolution” gained more power the harder he sang it.

Others – “My Racing Thought” and “Bloodshot” – simply gave McMahon a chance to perform; and perform he did.

He opened the show by standing on his piano and found himself atop it three more times during the show, sometime stomping on the keys. Other times, such as on the new “Catching Cold,” he would step away from the piano to prowl the stage.

That song was among three of the new EP’s four McMahon played. The beat-heavy “After the Fire” was a clear statement of overcoming, and “Synesthesia” was great. Ironically, he skipped perhaps the disc’s best, the affirming, “Learn to Dance,” which he sang in Lancaster.

He also played a request – after saying he never does because they’re “for karaoke bars” – of “No Man is an Island,” an unreleased song he wrote for the wedding of guitarist Bobby “Raw” Anderson, the only member of Jack’s Mannequin no longer in his band.

And it was classic, performed alone on piano, strong and heartfelt.

He followed that with one he said was “on the opposite end of the maturity scale,” Something Corporate’s “IF YoU C Jordan,” one of the best songs of the set – filled with angst and anger and energy.

In fact, the Something Corporate songs were the best of a show. The early “I Woke Up in a Car” was simply wonderful, still capturing the swirling mood of discovery after these years.

“That’s the joy of this new adventure,” McMahon said, “taking a trip down memory lane.”

He was emphatic and invested for “Straw Dog” and sang well on “Ruthless.” But two slower SoCo numbers were centerpieces.

“Cavanaugh Park” was both lovely and moving, and showed how McMahon has moved beyond the song’s original power. It was the perfect intersection of his past and future.

And after closing the main set with Jack’s Mannequin’s “Dark Blue” – powerful in its buoyancy, the crowd clapping along -- “Konstantine,” unreleased until the band’s career-closing “Best Of” album, was a 10-minute tour de force.

McMahon started it solo, alone on stage, before the band returned three minutes in and McMahon sang in long-held notes, his twinkling piano reminding what was so great about his earlier bands.

But at 30, McMahon has moved beyond that, as he showed on the closing “La La Lie.” With delightful harmonica solos and him stomping – and sitting -- on his keys, it was a celebration.

I agree completely. I have been following Andrew for several years and have seen shows from Bloomsburg to Susquehanna to Kutztown to Asbury Park to Atlantic City to Philadelphia. I even made it to the Something Corporate reunion tour a couple of years ago and and after each concert I walk away amazed.

This particular concert may have been the best of all (the three shows I have seen at the TLA in Philly were close). I think Andrew and his band were excited to play an entire set instead of an opening one and the enthusiasm and joy of performing was evident. The venue also made it a treat.

It was great to hear songs from early years to the present. It was a celebration of Andrew and his music.

Posted By: Mike White | Jul 27, 2013 10:59:27 AM

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.